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Reversing the Trend
Christian congregations are losing numbers. This is an undeniable trend. According to Simon G. Brauer in his 2017 peer-reviewed paper written for the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, congregations hit their peak of 414,000 in 2006 and by 2012 the number shrank to 384,000. According Thom Rainer, in his 2018 article Hope for Dying Churches, “Between 6,000 and 10,000 churches in the U.S. are dying each year.” There is no solid statistical evidence of this many closings….
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Unrealized Economic Opportunities
I recently attended this year’s Worship Facilities conference that was held in Orlando. A common theme was evident from this year’s presenters, ways the church can become more relevant to the community they live in. As a result communities will see church as more than the place for Sunday worship. Certainly having the church more actively engaged with community’s needs and desires is a win for the community as well as the congregation, but there are also economic gains for…
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What About the Millennials?
In researching how millennials see the church today and what they are looking for I found a study conducted by the Barna Group who has conducted over 30,000 interviews with Millennials over the past 10 years. Armed with this vital background of information the referenced study looked at 4 areas; culture, ministry, leadership and facilities and surveyed teens and young adults born between 1984 and 2002. The following excerpt from the introduction contains a momentous warning for the church. “….
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Make Community Outreach Visible to the Community
Royal Oak First United Methodist Church Make Community Outreach Visible to the Community Community outreach takes many forms. Some can be more obvious within a community than others. Successful outreach efforts respond to the question, “What does our community need?” As church architects, we believe buildings are key outreach tools. We ask, “What type of environment can be created to best support the church’s outreach plans to serve their community?” Today church activities extend beyond Sunday morning services. They require…
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Preserve the Legacy, Respect the Details
Preserve the Legacy, Respect the Details Until now this series, “Revitalize and Transform the Church on Main,” has focused on modifying the design of early to mid-century churches to make them more effective ministry tools for today’s culture. There is a danger in taking this too far. The churches we’ve been discussing have been in existence anywhere from 60 to over 100 years. It’s not just the building, which is…
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Where’s the Front Door?
Royal Oak First United Methodist Church “Where’s the front door?” may sound like a rhetorical question, but it’s not when it comes to churches built in the first half of the 20th century. In this third post, I’ll discuss why the front door isn’t the front door any longer in churches from this era. Front doors are meant to be the primary entrance that directly takes or directs you to your destination. For those of you who read the transportation…
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This Isn’t my Grandfather’s Church!
Royal Oak First United Methodist Church In my previous post, I discussed the prediction: “Churches that love their model more than their mission will die” and how that can apply to the design of early to mid-century church building models. In this post, I’ll continue to examine this premise through the eyes of a first-time visitor or new member family. Walking into an unfamiliar church building for the first time can be a little intimidating, especially if the building layout…
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Revitalize – Transform part 1
Making predictions are dangerous and even a bit ridiculous according to Pastor Carey Nieuwhof, a columnist at Christian Week. Yet in a recent blog post, he boldly made 10 predictions about the future church. Prediction #2: “Churches that love their model more than their mission will die.” This caught my attention and inspired me to write this series on revitalizing and transforming the church through architectural design. To explain his prediction about church mission and model, Pastor Nieuwhof shared examples…
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